THE world's biggest arts festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, has expressed dismay at losing its funding from Scotland's national arts body, as it unveiled a new £99m financial package.

Creative Scotland has dropped the Fringe from its list of arts organisations to receive key three-year funding, with other high profile companies cut from the list include the Festival and King's Theatre in the capital, Glasgow's Transmission gallery and acclaimed visual arts body NVA.

The list of Regularly Funded Organisations (RFO) however includes 19 new companies.

Creative Scotland funding analysis: Who gained and who lost in the pivotal three year funding deals

Of the 97 companies to remain funded, 27 have received an increase, eight have received cuts, but the majority, 62, have received standstill funding.

Aided by a budget boost from the Scottish Government, Creative Scotland has, instead of reducing the number of companies it supports, decided to shake-up its RFO recipients from 2018-21.

New organisations backed include Starcatchers, who make performances for the under-fives, Toonspeak, a youth theatre company in Glasgow, and the Stills photography gallery in Edinburgh.

Last night the Fringe expressed its dismay at losing its £70,000 annual funds.

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Shona McCarthy, chief executive, said: "On behalf of the many thousands of artists, producers, venues and companies that make up the Fringe family, we are extremely disappointed not to be included.

"For over 70 years, the Fringe has nurtured, encouraged, and developed artists from all walks of life, at all stages of their career and from all over the world, to take risks and excel on an international stage.

"The Fringe generates over £170m a year for the Scottish economy but receives less than 5% of its funding from the public sector."

Creative Scotland funding analysis: Who gained and who lost in the pivotal three year funding deals

Duncan Hendry, chief executive of the Festival City Theatres Trust said he was "extremely disappointed" by the loss of RFO funding.

The Imaginate Festival, for children and young people, also expressed dismay at the removal of Catherine Wheels and Visible Fiction from the RFO list.

A statement said: "While our standstill funding decision from Creative Scotland is disappointing, as it will limit our ability to improve children’s access to high-quality theatre and dance, it is a huge blow for the sector that both Catherine Wheels Theatre Company and Visible Fiction have had their funding entirely cut.

"It is bad news for them and consequently bad news for us."

Newly funded organisations include several who represent or promote artforms rather than presenting work, including the Federation of Scottish Theatre and the Scottish Contemporary Art Network.

There will be a new touring fund, worth £2m in 2019/20, and a pot of £2m of "transition funds", which will give six-month funding to companies that have lost out on RFO funds.

Yesterday, senior figures at the body said the Fringe and Festival Theatre Trust decisions does not mean there was a move against funding organisations in Edinburgh.

Creative Scotland funding analysis: Who gained and who lost in the pivotal three year funding deals

Iain Munro, deputy chief executive, said: "The reality is that there is the same number of organisations [based in the city] as currently, and if you look at the financial side, there is more money going in."

Janet Archer, chief executive, noted Creative Scotland received more applications for its funds than it could support: 184 in total, requesting £154m.

However despite a budget boost in December, Creative Scotland still had to make funding decisions within a standstill budget.

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She said: "Regular funding is just part of the bigger mix, part of a bigger picture and other income streams come from local authorities, from trusts and foundations, from philanthropic giving, from donations, and from earned income.

"Regular Funding is 24% of the total turnover of the organisations that we are funding.

"We want to work with all the organisations that we aren't funding in other ways.

"We hope to maintain relationships and we do have other routes to funding and they will be able to apply to those."

Creative Scotland funding analysis: Who gained and who lost in the pivotal three year funding deals

Mr Munro said he believed that other routes of funding, notably Open Funding, supported by Lottery money, would also be "viable" in the future as an additional financial support.